Fasting may help to lower blood pressure by altering the microbial communities within the human gut. Now, new research suggests that fasting might help to protect against hypertension, a condition closely associated with heart disease and stroke.
Very often, we go to great lengths to find a new pill, potion, or therapy to treat a specific health complaint. It’s very much in our nature to seek the answer to health problems somewhere in the external world, whether from a medical prescription or an emerging dietary trend.
Fasting challenges this instinctual reliance on the external. Instead, this ancient practice calls upon us to do nothing at all. It teaches us that the answers to some issues are already within us. By abstaining from food, the source of both vibrant health and chronic disease, we give our physiology time to make adjustments that it otherwise can’t.
Many different religions and spiritual practices utilize fasting to untether the body from physical desires and strengthen the sense of the ethereal. Modern science has also probed fasting and discovered numerous health benefits, including immune replenishment and possible life extension.
Published within the journal Circulation Research, the study shows that the practice of intermittent fasting restructures the gut microbiome in animals.
By changing the levels of microbial populations, fasting helps to shift bile metabolism, and in turn, reduce blood pressure.
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